Comments on: Samizdata quote of the day (year?)

By: veryretired

veryretired — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 02:41:28 +0000

The primitive urge to DO SOMETHING is one of the basic problems in our lives. Combine it with a swindle of hungry lawyers elected to public office and you’ve got real trouble.

By: RRS

RRS — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 20:27:12 +0000

We are again indebted to Detlev Schlichter for this disambiguation of – Policy. A definite course or method of action selected from among alternatives and in light of given conditions to guide and determine present and future decisions. Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary 10th Edition (1993) That expands upon the very minimal definitions in Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary Fifth Edition (1936) [the erstwhile companion of first university days]. Thus, with him, we recognize that most “policy” consists of selections made by some, based on their perceptions of given conditions (when we are lucky) to determine the present and future decisions and actions by others (such as ourselves, who have no participation in the selection, perception of conditions and acceptance of the determination of decisions and actions).

By: Laird

Laird — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 00:30:02 +0000

You could get a fine QOTD candidate for every day of the year from Detlev’s site. But I agree that this one is a particularly fine example.

By: Brian Micklethwait (London)

Brian Micklethwait (London) — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 18:34:58 +0000

The quote as written doesn’t actually disagree with you (Michael J). It merely says that the main problem with monetary – as opposed to all – policy is that it is a “policy”, i.e. deranged by politicians. It doesn’t claim that monetary policy is the root cause of everything that has gone wrong. But monetary policy has contributed a hell of a lot, as I think you would agree.

It has certainly made state economic manipulation less obvious than it would otherwise have been. Surely, with regard to the current mess, the alarm bells would have rung louder, sooner.

By: Michael Jennings

Michael Jennings — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 18:15:06 +0000

I’m not really convinced that this is the cause of all our problems, in truth. The problem is the size of government, which is now swallowing everything else. Monetary policy has certainly been a tool in their being able to do that, but is it the cause? I rather doubt it. Successive governments have come to power after telling them that they would be Father Christmas when elected, and they have found every possible way to try to do this. I think this would have likely happened even if they did not control the money supply. To control the money supply is to control one more possible form of taxation, but they already controlled all the others.